One common way for restaurants to serve coffee to customers is with a disposable cup, which often has a disposable lid, covering the cup in which the coffee is being served. This is done in fast food restaurants which serve the food and coffee over the counters, where it can be taken off the premises. Also, these are used for drive-through restaurants where the car drives to a service window, and the coffee and also other beverages and/or food are served through the window. There are a number of establishments which serve coffee and/or other beverages exclusively for drive-through customers.
Some types of lids for these coffee cups have an opening at the perimeter of the lid which permits the person to drink coffee while leaving the lid in place in its closing position. When the coffee cup is being handled or passed from one person to another, the movement of the coffee within the cup can sometimes cause the coffee to spill through the opening.
It has been a practice in some drive-in or drive-through restaurants to use a piece of flexible adhesive material (similar to adhesive tape that is commonly used to cause a bandage to be placed against the person's skin) to cover the lid opening when the coffee is being served. Then the person can remove the adhesive cover when he or she begins drinking the coffee. Generally, the person who is to drink the coffee will simply take the adhesive piece off and dispose of it.
A search of the patent literature has revealed a number of patents relating to different configurations of closed containers that permit the person to drink from the container and various types of covers for these and other items. These patents are the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,191 (Neville) shows a spout built on a lip of a cup portion and a lid portion. It is closed by hinged flap 54, that is provided with a tab 56 that is a releasable holding means to keep the flap closed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,698 (Ewart et al) shows a container for holding and treating contact lenses. The lower section has fluid holding basin sections, and an upper cover sheet to seal the basins. The cover material is held in place by an adhesive that can be repeatedly used in a wet environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,902 (DeMars) shows a spout lid that is provided with a cover that is retained tightly enough to provide a fluid tight seal. The cover is attached to the lid by an integral strap element.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,975 (Coy) shows a lid spout that is provided with a valve that prevents leakage during use. There is a cover element 16, in place before use that is secured by adhesive. The cover element 16 is removed when the spout is about to be used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,583 (Montemarano) shows a cup lid that has a spout provided with a closure element 24, and that is held in place by perforations that are broken when the cup is to be used. There is a thumb tab 26 that aids in opening and may be provided with adhesive to aid in resealing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,156 (Lobbestael) shows a spout that is provided with removable cover. There are perforations in the material between the cover and the spout so that the cover may be easily removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,827 (Abere et al) shows a sealing element held over an opening in a fluid container by adhesive.